Monkeys menace farmer’s pineapple crop

A small-scale farmer is locked in a desperate struggle against a troop of marauding monkeys that are decimating his pineapple harvest, potentially jeopardising his livelihood and the future of pineapple cultivation.

Despite deploying a range of deterrents, including chicken manure, wind-blown bags, traps, newspaper coverings and mesh wire, Slater has been unable to find a sustainable solution to the ongoing problem.

“Nothing has proven to be sustainably effective except for the mesh wire but with the scale of my farm, purchasing enough mesh to protect all my fruits is too expensive,” he told Barbados TODAY.

Slater, who has been growing more than eight varieties of pineapples for the past six years, only started being affected by monkeys early last year.

The problem had worsened with more frequent raids threatening his livelihood, he said.

This year he had initially planned to harvest about 1 500 pineapples but the green furry primates have either eaten or destroyed about 40.

He declared being at his wit’s end in grappling with the issue.

“The monkeys are still eating down my pineapples,” he said. “Nearly forty odd pineapples they eat already and I was looking to reap 1 500 pineapples but I doubt I will get that.”

Despite his frustrations and losses, Slater said he was determined to prove that pineapple farming could be done successfully in Barbados and therefore he vowed not to give up.

“I want to see pineapples growing. A lot of people have been buying from me and planting but I would like to see more people pushing it, getting into farming pineapples.”

Slater said a troop of about 20 monkeys or more started raiding his farm last year during the dry season in May. New to the encounter, back then he chased them when they showed up uninvitingly around 7-7:30 a.m. Since then, he had invested in a monkey cage but that venture did not prove to be fruitful for him.

In his efforts to safeguard his crop, Slater also tried a variety of makeshift solutions. He placed fresh chicken manure around his farm, hoping the strong scent would deter the primates, but they were unfazed. He then hung large bags around the perimeter to simulate human movement, which initially confused the monkeys but quickly lost its effectiveness.

He said: “There are some big pineapples coming up but the monkeys are biting them up. I want some solutions for these monkeys. I put up this border right around for the monkeys to be scared but they are not. They would come for two days and just look. When they realise the bags are not moving around in the field they say ‘alright I will destroy the pineapples’. They come in and eat them, as much as they could eat. I do not feel pleased about it. I had tried to get the bush around me cleared, cause I operate next to the gully, but the persons never came. Maybe if the area is cleared, they won’t have a place to hide and watch me. If the bush is cleared, I would also get to expand and grow more pineapples.”

The next idea the 64-year-old farmer thought of was a “fly-up” trap. This seemed to be a bright idea at first but the monkeys quickly outsmarted the trapper.

“This is a fly-up,” he explained. “I put mango or banana in here and they would come for the fruit and step here and this (stick) would fly up. I caught one, called the Ministry of Agriculture and someone came and got rid of it. But once they get accustomed to something, they will not continue. They come and take out the banana or mango. They are so smart, they will come and take their time and pick it out, stepping carefully not to set off the trap. I set three more traps in the bushy area and they know how to get around the [contraption].”

The only thing that has been working is wrapping the fruits with wire mesh.

“I use this to stop the monkeys from eating them. This is working but with the amount of pineapples I have, I can’t [afford] to buy enough wire to put around them.”

It usually takes about a year or a little less to grow the pineapples and Slater therefore cannot bounce back from the losses in any hurry.

The eight varieties of pineapples he grows are – Cone, Guyanese, Honey Dew, Sugar Sweet, Hawaii, Unknown Red, Red, and One Seed.

Monkeys usually raid farms during the dry season when seasonal fruits are not readily available, agriculture officials said. 

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb